Libertyville's Filippo authors winning cross country finale

Katherine Filippo is an English major at Illinois Wesleyan with an emphasis in writing.

The former Libertyville standout sure wrote a great script for her final cross country season in Bloomington.

She helped the Titans reach the NCAA finals for the first time in school history.

Clocked in a time of 23:22.3 for 188th place, Filippo helped the Titans finish 24th in the NCAA Division III cross country championships at the LaVern Gibson Course in Terre Haute, Ind.

"Qualifying for nationals was a goal that we had been working toward for the past four years," said Filippo, who also worked as an intern in the sports information department at IWU. "There was no crazy race strategy for the season, we just ran consistently well and kept our top five runners together."

The Titans also won the conference for the first time. Filippo placed ninth to earn all-conference honors.

"It helped that this year's team was really mentally strong, which is important when it comes to championship races." Fillipo added. "Winning conference, for the first time in school history, was all the more rewarding because everyone was so invested in our success as a team. We gave it everything we had and it was great to see that all of our hard work that we put in over the summer and during the season paid off."

The Titans tallied 554 points for a 24th place finish among 32 teams. John Hopkins won the national title with 158 points, while Wartburg (221) and Claremont-Mudd -Scripps (233) took second and third, respectively.

Men's soccer

Marian senior defender Dennis Mudd has been named to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America men's soccer third team. It was Mudd's first honor as a four-year starter and elite student-athlete at the Wisconsin school.

The Libertyville native posted a cumulative GPA of 3.97, while double-majoring in biology and chemistry. He is just the third Academic all-American recipient at Marian, joining men's basketball's Scott Jaeger (2000-01) and baseball's Jesse Blum (2011-12).

Mudd was an NSCAA All-North/Central Region Scholar selection last season and a Capital One Academic All-District 6 First Team pick this year. He scored his first career goal for the Sabres this season, converting a game-tying penalty kick at Concordia Wisconsin on Oct. 10. In his first game back after missing four games due to injury, Mudd helped the Sabres to a shutout over highly-touted UW-Oshkosh at home.

An aspiring doctor, Mudd had his paper on water quality published in the Journal of Environmental Protection in late October. Prior to that, he secured two summer internships, one in which he was chosen by an EPA approved lab and the other as a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch Pediatric Department.

Women's volleyball

Toby, a Fox Lake native, spent much of the season as the NAIA's individual digs leader before finishing the season with the third-most digs in the nation (845) and the most among Association of Independent Institutions.

Toby also led Ashford with 44 service aces while dishing out 28 assists to go along with 12 kills. Behind her efforts, AU finished with the second-most team digs in the nation, picking up 2,804 opponent attack attempts.

"It is an honor that Karrah was chosen to receive this honor," said Ashford coach Micah Cewe. "Karrah had an outstanding year in the back row. She dug everything in her area and found ways to get solid touches and digs all over the court. I am very proud of her and I know she will continue to have a bright future for the Saints."

Toby was named First Team All-A.I.I. earlier this month and was nominated to the A.I.I. All-Tournament team following the postseason event.

Ashford, along with schools from the states of Oregon, Montana, Washington, North Dakota and Idaho, made up the Northwest Region squad.

"This award is based on their statistics," said Lewis women's volleyball coach Lorelee Smith. "If you can do well against all types of tough competition, then in the end your stats will reflect that, which is what Amy did."

Choi posted 583 total digs, averaging 5.55 digs per set, which is second overall in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. A 2012 All-GLVC East Division honoree, Choi had 18 service aces and 70 assists in 105 sets of action.

Women's soccer

Florida State's Jessica Price (Vernon Hills) helped assist the game-winning goal in the 53rd minute as the Seminoles shut out Notre Dame, 1-0, to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

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